Orlando Baha'i members keep faith after fires destroy center

J.C. Walker (left) and others play drums during the Nov. 11 service honoring the birth of the Baha'i faith's founder. The congregation met in a tent on the site of the burned-out Greater Orlando Baha'i Center.

The house where the Baha'i faithful met for 23 years on Hillcrest Street in Orlando is gone — nothing to suggest it was ever there except for the marks of the bulldozer on the bare brown earth. All traces of the arson that destroyed the Greater Orlando Baha'i Center were scraped away along with the topsoil.

About 60 members of the Baha'i faith met Wednesday night beneath an illuminated white tent where the house once stood. They gathered to thank the Orlando Fire Department and pay homage to the birth of their religion's founder.

A homeless man allowed to live on the property was arrested for the series of fires that destroyed the 87-year-old house. Terry Hess, 56, was arrested the morning of Nov. 5 when neighbors reported a third fire at the center in two weeks. Hess remains in jail, charged with three felony counts of arson.

Vahidi said Hess was paid to do yard work and landscaping around the center and was allowed to stay in a shed at the back of the property. But he was asked to leave after ignoring reminders that he could not drink alcohol on the property.

"He was a homeless guy we were trying to help out," Vahidi said. "It just sort of backfired, unfortunately."

No decision has been made by the nine-member governing assembly whether to rebuild on the property, sell the land, or move, Vahidi said. The house, valued at $210,000, was purchased by the Baha'i group in 1986. Lost in the fire were the center's records, memorabilia and an old wooden chair upon which the son of the faith's founder once sat.

"We always kept it covered. Nobody sat on that chair," said Vahidi, 47, an Orlando ophthalmologist.

On Wednesday, Baha'i members gathered to commemorate the birth of Baha'i founder Baha'u'llah on Nov. 12, 1817. A slide show of his life was projected on a pull-down screen at the front of the tent.

"To us, this is like Christmas, the birth of our prophet," Vahidi said.

The fire has brought a greater sense of togetherness to the 200 members of the Baha'i faith in metro Orlando, said center spokeswoman Kelsey Vargas.

Adversity, she said, promotes unity — one of the chief tenets of the Baha'i faith.